State lawmakers accused of pay raise by committee

Illinois
lawmakers are using a seemingly surreptitious way to give themselves pay
raises: creating new and useless committees for which they are
automatically paid an extra $10,326 as chairmen, a Chicago-based think
tank is arguing.

The Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) says that
legislation enacted in the House in January created 12 new standing
committees, bringing the total to 45.

Berg said this method of money-making isn't new, but Illinois appears to use it most often.

"No other state House in the country pays a bonus to this many standing committee chairs, according to an analysis of each state’s legislative bodies and 2016 data from the National Council on State Legislatures," Berg said. "Illinois is an outlier."

On its website, the IPI criticizes the tradition for its lack of
incentive-based merit, suggesting that committee positions are awarded
based on loyalty rather than effort.

House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago)
is the designated decision-maker on chairmanship, making it easy enough
for him to handpick favorites, the group argues.

"And in the spirit of bipartisanship, Republicans get in on the game as
well," Berg said. "The minority spokesperson for every committee gets the same
stipend as their Madigan-appointed counterpart."

The group says
that besides the mathematical significance, the tangible problem lies in
the sheer lack of relevance for many or most of the committees.

“The system is so broken that some House committees barely bother
meeting at all," Berg said. "Nine committees had fewer than five
meetings in 2015. For the chairs, that’s $10,326 for less than a long
day’s work.”

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